Many world cultures revere dreams.

In the aramic translation of the Bible, dreams contain messages from angels and God. Great scientists like Nikola Tesla have had profound ideas arrive through dreams. Legendary leaders such as Napoleon would receive inspiration through dreams. Untold legions of artists, musicians, writers and talented souls are inspired by their ephemeral experiences and express them through creative expression. Philosophers and mystics find answers to the great mysteries in dreams. And in yoga and other belief systems, dreams can be utilized for self-liberation, to commune with ascended masters, and travel through time and dimensions.

But in our modern, industrialized western world, dreams are dismissed and diminished to psychological interpretation. Dreamers are mocked, and dreams relegated to simplistic, incomplete books about what the images in the dream mean. We are told that dreams aren’t real, and have no value.

Yet the world has been shaped by dreamers, and anybody who dreams knows how the sleeping world can be such a strong influence in their waking life.

Awaken Dreamer.

Dreams are valuable and essential.

The dream world provides deep insight to the soul. Most world paths of mysticism and many world relgions recognize the dreaming world to be similar to, or the exact same state of consciousness as death. Knowing how to operate and remain integrated in dreams keeps a person from being lost in limbo.

The subconscious images and feelings are a pathway of communication between the waking and eternal self. They unveil the deepest levels of the self. They can provide healing, knowledge, and real experience that influence the waking life. Dreams also can provide answers and insights for what is occuring during the day, sort out and integrate feelings, and provide wisdom that another person or book could never provide.

Many people dream lightly, or do not remember their dreams. These are some simple tips for how to dream.

1. Go to bed with the intention of dreaming.

You have to want to dream, and it can happen. By not wanting dreams, then the mind will be less inclined to remember what happens.

2. Keep a dream journal.

Taking the time to write down what happens in dreams reinforces the desire to dream and be aware of what happens in them. A blank page journal is most helpful because images and concepts can be sketched out. In between waking and sleepfulness, allow images to flow. However, having the discipline to write dreams takes time. You have to really want to dream and be devoted to keep a dream journal. If you don’t, that is fine, every other point on here is just as valid, and through sheer force of will you will deepen your dreaming.

3. Different than imagination or thinking, the flowing of pictures is the beginning of dreaming. By watching the images flow through oneself, as the body falls asleep the dreams will become more and more vivid.

4. Go to bed early.

Dreaming occurs best when rested. And the brightest, most vivid dreams are remembered during the hours just before waking. The earliest hours, between four and seven, are ideal times for dreaming.

5. Lounge in bed.

If you have the luxury to wake up early, and then go back to sleep, do so. The dreams will be even more vivid, because the body and mind are well rested. Dreams at this time are reinforced through the specific intention to dream.

6. Observe body sensations.

While going to sleep, be aware of the heaviness of the body, the heartbeat, the breath moving within and out. This creates a meditative awareness that allows the dreamspace to arise.

7. While dreaming, observe images.

The images in a dream are illusionary. Just like in the waking world, what something appears to be could be something else. That does not mean the symbolism or object does not hold value or cannot be inspiration. But it does give the talent of seeing past the obvious.

8. While dreaming, observe feelings even more.

By feelings, I mean physical sensations. When falling, you may feel the sensation in the abdomen. When touching, the physical responses. When in water, the caress of water. When flying, the moving air. This reinforces the dreamworld. The sensations of living energies, prana, can be felt strongly within dreams.

9. When dreaming, observe emotions most of all.

The emotional states of the waking world will translate into the dream, and can be faced directly and resolved instantaneously. This gives ability to transcend personal stumbling blocks, and to recognize and integrate questions occurring in waking life. Emotions that arise in dreams are just as real as emotions arising when awake, and can influence personality and life just as easily. Honoring and working with emotions within the dreamworld provides the safest space to identify, nurture and heal emotional states.

10. To wake up in the dream, be aware.

Waking in the dream is as simple as regular practice, and remember the self. This turns dreaming into a meditation practice of self-awareness. The luminous soul awakens, and the dream can be travelled or changed at will. Being aware and allowing the dream is just as good as changing the dream, and is really just a personal preference.

Once you are able to be aware in dreams, all kinds of fantastical experiences may be entertained. I enjoy running through walls. I fly. I time-travel. I meet other travelers. I go to a central city where all souls gather. I sit under a great tree on a hill and watch the cosmos endlessly spin. I laugh and feel the greatest joys.

“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe

“Life is but a dream, within a dream.”  ~ William Shakespeare

“If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his and when he awake – aye, what then” ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: Caras Ionut/Pixoto